Friendship as a Value in Academic Ethos

Abstract

The aim of the research work reported here was to clarify the semantics of the notion of “friendship”. The main research question is to what extent friendship is recognised by students and teachers as a value constituting the identity of the Jagiellonian University’s (JU) academic community. From it follows another one: what role does friendship play in the value system of the academic ethos– does it have the potential to clarify or transform values enshrined in documents and recognised as enduring? This study uses qualitative data generated from the collected research material: semi-structured interviews and online surveys with closed questions, single and multiple choice. Content analysis was used to examine the interviews by identifying words, phrases and sentences related to the research tasks. The conclusions can be summarised as: 1.Friendship functions in horizontal relationships; 2. Friendship is an essential value of university ethos, realised through its other, already recognised and acknowledged, values: fair treatment, kindness, responsibility and respect for the other; 3. Friendship evolves in the system of references; 4. Friendship realised as a value of the ethos leads to a merger of the professional and the private spheres; 5. Friendship is automatically excluded when a vertical relationship appears.